Denial

1149 words

Rating: K

Draco Malfoy paced the floor of Daphne's office.

Since he'd walked into her office thirty seconds ago, Daphne hadn't said anything to him apart from a startled hello as he'd barged in. Seeing the look on his face and the hunch in his shoulders, she had simply given him one glance before looking back down at the work in front of her, allowing him to pace uselessly in her office.

Draco was glad for the silence. It gave him a moment for his head to stop racing. Another thirty seconds later and when he didn't feel quite so sick, he stopped abruptly in his steps and turned to stare at the witch currently ignoring him.

"Did Pansy happen to mention something about her wedding?" he asked Daphne nervously. He was hoping to pull off a casual tone but he didn't think he'd succeeded.

Daphne raised her head and peered at the wizard in front of her. She knew what Draco was hedging at but she couldn't help but pretend to play dumb for a little while longer. She would consider it payback for him taking her husband out last weekend and getting him so drunk that he'd conveniently been unable to accompany her to Millicent's party.

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

"The wedding!" Draco stressed.

"It's on December the 24th. You are coming aren't you?" she asked.

Draco's grey eyes narrowed at her tone and he gave her a shrewd look. "You already know don't you?" he accused.

Daphne couldn't control the twitch to her lips. "What? That Pansy asked you to walk her down the aisle? She might have mentioned something to me."

Draco stared at Daphne's grin for a second before he swore under his breath. "What is she thinking? Why ask me? I can't do that. I'm not the right wizard. There has to be someone else. A relative or someone."

Draco watched Daphne raise an eyebrow. The action had always fascinated him. Hermione could do it too.

"You know as well as I do that Pansy doesn't have any family. She wants you to do it because she thinks of you as her brother."

And that was the problem. He'd never gotten emotionally involved with anyone before. Not even his mother. Yet somehow, after moving back to England a year ago, he'd somehow found himself with wizards he considered to be actual close friends and as for Daphne and Pansy- well he cared for them. And he didn't understand it one bit.

How in Merlin's balls had they managed to bury themselves inside him? Draco knew he shouldn't have agreed to all those dinners and outings.

"It can't be me." He repeated.

Daphne sighed. "It's what the bride wants. Are you going to tell her no?"

Draco glared at Daphne but said nothing. Tell Pansy no? Hardly. She might start crying or something. But why did she have to ask him? He'd never done something like this before.

"Do I have to say anything?" he asked nervously.

Daphne's lips gave another twitch. "No."

Draco sighed in relief. At least that was something. "She's old enough to walk herself." He muttered.

"That isn't the point and you know it."

"Fine. I'll do it." He agreed as if it was costing him the world. He knew well enough that he would never have been able to say no when Pansy had asked him.

To give her credit, Daphne didn't mock him as she normally would have done.

"Good." She said with a strong nod of her head. "I should also tell you that you're expected for Christmas dinner at my house this year. Blaise is cooking. Have you decided what you're getting Hermione?" she asked.

Draco hesitated. What he was getting Hermione? Because he would be spending Christmas with her. Because they were together- kind off. Did shagging mean they were together?

Draco tugged the neck of his robes as he felt the temperature of the room spike.

"You look like a wizard who's about to run off." Daphne remarked. "Want to tell me why?"

"I don't make a big deal about Christmas. I usually Floo over to see my mother in France for an hour before apparating somewhere warm."

"That sounds lonely."

Draco shrugged. "There are a lot of parties and women around." It was his world. Or at least the world he used to belong to. Now he wasn't so sure.

"It still sounds lonely."

Draco agreed but he shrugged off her comment.

"Don't think you can get out of spending Christmas with us this year. Harry is one of the best Auror's there is and he and Pansy aren't leaving for their honeymoon until the day after Christmas. I'll ask him to hunt you down and bring you back kicking and screaming if need be."

The temperature of the room seemed to spike again.

It wasn't so much spending Christmas with his friends that he was worried about. It was Hermione and the fact that he could easily picture himself spending Christmas day with her. Waking up with her and opening presents in front of her tree with her mangy cat eyeing him up hatefully. Draco would get her something green and lacy and after admonishing him for it, she would slip it on. It was too cozy a picture for him.

"No." he said as he stepped back.

Men, Daphne thought with a shake of her head. "Take a deep breath and calm down." She told Draco. "You're worried because you're falling in love with her and you haven't done that before. It's okay to go slow. After Weasley and Brown, I think Hermione would prefer that."

Draco didn't even manage to hear the rest of Daphne's words. He was still stuck on the falling in love bit. He didn't love Hermione. Their relationship wasn't like that. They'd agreed on the terms before they'd started shagging. He wanted sex and after the useless affiliation she'd had with the bastard Weasel, all Hermione had wanted was a no strings affair.

Draco didn't do love. Not him.

"I don't love her." He said flatly.

Daphne looked at him with a pitying expression. "It's okay if you do Draco."

"No! It's not. If that's what you all think then you're wrong. I don't love Hermione. I don't do love. Ever."

He spoke with such certainty that there was no room for doubt, Hermione thought as she paused outside Daphne's office. She had come to ask Daphne if she wanted to join her for lunch so she could gossip about her newly discovered feelings for Draco. All morning she had been floating in her own little blissful bubble, happy because she was in love.

Her bubble had just burst at his words.

She was in love with a man who obviously was never going to love her back.

What was she supposed to do now?

Author's Note: Thank You for reading!